Chestnut Hill newsstand gets new business partner

James Owen Boyle, manager of the newsstand at the Chestnut Hill West train station, has become a business partner of Stewart Graham, who purchased the business in 2011.

Boyle, a horticulturist, who has managed the newsstand since March of 2011, said the newsstand hasn’t been profitable for the last two years. He has decided to stop selling The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal because he said it wasn’t cost-effective and is considering changing the newsstands’ hours, which currently are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week.

“Right now, I am a one-man show,” Boyle said. “I am asking people to just be patient with me. I want to run the newsstand as a profitable business, and that requires some changes.”

Boyle said he plans to put up a suggestion box and hopes eventually to sell coffee and other items like soft pretzels.

“I am trying to think out of the box,” Boyle said.

Boyle said the newsstand has always been a central part of the community, and he wants to continue its family-friendly atmosphere.

“I want to be a place where people of all walks of life can come – a place where memories can be built,” Boyle said.

Graham, a former Chestnut Hill Community Manager, said he purchased the newsstand to preserve an “iconic” part of Chestnut Hill. In an article published March 15, 2011, in the Chestnut Hill Local, Graham said, “I am not looking to make money, just want to have some fun.”

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